DepEd taps WB for pay hike study

DEFINING DEDICATION Teacher Edito Ansale Jr. helps out pupils during a reading drill at Corazon Aquino Elementary School in Quezon City. —LYN RILLON

The Department of Education (DepEd) has tapped multilateral lender World Bank (WB) to come up with a study on how the government should implement a salary hike for public school teachers.

Education Undersecretary Michael Poa said DepEd has reached out to the World Bank to help the department in determining the basis and proper approach for a pay increase.

“What we want to know is whether or not the current salary of teachers is still appropriate. Should we give an increase? Now, if we need to give an increase, [do we] not give it just one time, meaning, [is it] over the years … and how much will the increase be,” Poa told reporters on Thursday.

READ: VP Duterte to implement policies increasing take-home pay of teachers

The results of the study, which Poa hopes to come out soon, would guide DepEd once it “proposes anything as [regards] to the salary increase of teachers to the Congress.”

Vice President and concurrent Education Secretary Sara Duterte in her second Basic Education Report discussed DepEd’s strategies in augmenting the take-home pay of teachers, including establishing a calamity fund, expanding medical insurance coverage as well as crafting policies for “overload” and overtime pay.

“To our beloved teachers and staff, we will not stop looking for measures and policies that seek to address issues regarding your net take-home pay,” Duterte said in her speech.

‘Overload’ pay policy

Duterte vowed to issue separate policies that would institutionalize the “overload” and overtime pay for teachers.

“We will also issue a policy on teaching overload pay. We want to ensure that our teachers are rightfully compensated for hours of actual classroom teaching beyond the six-hour limit provided under the Magna Carta for teachers,” Duterte said.

READ: DepEd officially orders immediate removal of admin tasks from teachers

She added the allocation for the grant of overtime pay would be proposed for next year’s budget.

“Historically, for nonteaching tasks performed outside their regular working hours, teachers are only compensated through service credits,” Duterte said.

Service credits are vacation leave credits given to teachers who render duty outside of regular teaching hours, such as during summer or Christmas vacations.

‘Lack of urgency’

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers, meanwhile, slammed Duterte’s lack of “urgent and willful interventions” in ensuring a fair wage for the teaching workforce amid the rising cost of basic commodities.

“Foremost among [the teachers’] concerns is the government’s failure to address the economic plight of our teachers by providing substantial salary increase commensurate with a humane and livable wage,” the group said in a statement on Friday.

It pressed the Marcos administration to raise the entry-level monthly salary of teachers to P50,000, which it deemed a “reasonable compensation for their overworked, underpaid and under-supported conditions.”

The pay grade of public school teachers is based on the Salary Standardization Law, the last tranche of which was implemented last year.

Under the law, those under Teacher 1 position would get a Salary Grade 11, equivalent to around P27,000 to P29,000 per month. INQ